Boxing Personal Training Athens, GA

So maybe you’ve tried a few different methods of working out and nothing seems to be...

well... working out for you.  Running is boring, pumping iron like Arnold isn’t for you, you
don’t feel like doing zumba or you're tired of sitting in a spin class.  There is a lot of hype
out there that we all get bombarded with on a daily basis.  New “insane’’ workouts or
extreme fad diets come and go all the time.  

Have you ever came across some old magazine or video from the 80’s that featured
some new, innovative workout and you look at it and think “what the hell were they
thinking”?  Well, what most of the people you know are doing is going to look just
about as ridiculous 20 years down the road. This is the great thing about life and
the nature of progress, even if it leaves us feeling embarrassed about the fact we
bought that ridiculous inner thigh machine or got that membership to this or that
hip gym we are still hopefully making real progress.

Throughout modern history a few things have stayed around to become known as great workouts and one that has truly stood the test of time and is really as american as baseball and apple pie…… it’s Gloved Boxing.  Gloved Boxing started and became popular in the US near the beginning part of the 20th century.  It represented the antithesis of all sports.  There is no one else, but you and your opponent and you test not only your wits and reflexes against them.  You have to go through extreme physical preparation to even be ready to just go the distance.  ESPN ranked Boxing the hardest sport in the world a few years ago because of not only the physical damage that can happen in a fight, but mostly because of the variety of demands it places on your body from a purely conditioning standpoint.

Unlike weight lifting or running, Boxing demands that you have strength, speed, power,
endurance and quick reflexes.  Any Boxer that lacks in any of these areas often ends up
having a very tough time getting very far.  It’s because of these requirements that Boxing
Training and specifically Personal Boxing training is so effective.

You don’t have to get hit, as many already know, to experience the positive effects of
Boxing personal sessions.  In a well designed sessions that is coached (emphasis on
a “coach” not a trainer that just counts reps while they check out their own arms in the
mirror or check out someone else) by a legitimate Boxing Coach, you get the sweet science
while your body gets challenged in ways it has never been before.  You get a lean and
mean fighter's body from sessions like this, not a bulky look or a slim and weak emaciated
appearance.  

You get a body that looks good and can actual perform some pretty amazing feats like sharp

combinations, fast hand speed, quick footwork and powerful punches.  It’s a lot more
satisfying to be able actual perform something with your newly found conditioning instead of
just beinga good looking exterior and not have any ability….. you know, all show and no go.

Now what are the drawbacks to Boxing Personal Training?  Well for starters if you’re looking
to be a bodybuilder it’s probably not a good fit.  Boxing keeps you from putting on an
excessive amount of muscle, but it  will tone and strengthen your whole body.  

Another con is a Boxing Personal Training session can be dangerous in two different ways.  
One of them is way more serious than the other.  Here is the less serious one first....

Depending who you train with you could be looking ridiculous.  There are many fitness
trainers, BodyBuilding trainers and general personal trainers that believe because they can
fit their hand into a focus mitt that they can train you one on one in Boxing.  Honestly
working with people who have no idea how to Box can oftentimes be much easier than
working with someone who has already been trained by one of these individuals.  
Although, I am extremely proud of the many instances I have taken on someone who
has started with one of these trainers and turned them around and made them look
pretty amazing!

You see vids of these trainer with their unsuspecting clients all the time on social media.  
The “coach” is slapping down hard on every punch and working harder that the client!  
To be clear I am not raging on beginners. The client is only moving their arms and
therefore only getting an arm workout, their chin is up, there hands are down and neither
the client of the “coach’ ever get any better.  Sure some people are impressed just as some
guys are impressed by another guy showing off how much he can bench press by hip
thrusting a bar off their chest or by loading up a bar and squatting about a quarter of the
depth it would take to be a decent squat.  So if you want to be like that then by all means
keep on training with these individuals, but there is one more reason you may want
to consider.

A while back I was training a client in one on one at a local gym.  Their scheduled changed
for a couple weeks and we weren’t able to get any sessions in.   So a well meaning
Bodybuilding personal trainer came to my client and offered to do some Boxing work
with her.  Fifteen minutes into the workout, BANG!!!.....  The client had broken their wrist.  
I talked to my client after this incident to find out the details.  Many people who like to
pretend to be in the know are probably thinking they know the answer to why she broke
her wrist, “She didn’t wrap!”….. no that wasn’t the reason.  

The sequences she was going through up until that final punch that lead to her injury was
setting her up for an accident and only people in the know could see the pattern.  
No one day course on Boxing or Boxing fitness instructor class will teach you this, it is
something you must learn from the experience of working with champion athletes and
knowing the ins and outs of the game.

If you mess around with trainers that are just picking up a little boxing instructing on the side
and don’t study the art from a systematized and well laid out frame work you may slide by
without any issues besides just looking goofy.  At worst you could cause injury to yourself
that could've easily been avoided if you would have simply worked with someone who is
actually qualified. All these things are important to weigh in your consideration of doing any
Boxing training.  I am obviously a little biased to Boxing as a path to fitness, but no matter
what you find to be a fit for you in make sure you are with people who know what they
are doing.  

THE FINAL BELL

Remember, if you want to change your fitness  or change your life, don’t wait to do it.  
Action is the essential component to any achievement.  You can know what to do and
say what you need to do it, but until you begin and take that first step and then
keep marching forward you will not get the body and life that you want.  Make a choice
to take control of your life now and remember if you don’t make a choice you
are stillmaking one and that is to do nothing and let the next five years be like the
last five……. START NOW!

FITNESS CLASS ATHENS, GA

If you search google or Bing for “Fitness Classes Near me” or “Fitness Classes Athens GA” you will get a whole slew of results.  It can be hard to make a decision on the best the best fit for you.  Is it Yoga, Crossfit, Boot Camp, Body Pump, Barre Class, MMA or Kickboxing?  The options are endless and can leave you uninspired and unmotivated trying to decide what might be best.  

It’s very important to have variety in your workout routine.  If all you do is go to the gym and run on the treadmill or just lift weights, you are slowing down your results and setting yourself up to hit a  plateau very quickly.  Almost every guy wants to do nothing but lift heavier and heavier weights; while many women get caught in the habit of logging more and more time on various cardio machines.  Both pathways are not going to get you long term, sustainable and lasting results.  We have all seen the guy that can lift crazy amounts of weight and has had slipped disks from heavy Deadlifts, torn rotator cuffs from heavy Benching and bad knees from heavy Squats.  Of course proper form can go a long way in preventing some of these issues.  However, without a qualified coach or trainer with you during the majority of your workouts, or exercising extreme vigilance on your part (along with a little good luck) you are running a chance of having some serious setbacks.

Many people also lack the drive to get through a workout that is truly challenging enough to give them the body and health they desire on their own.  A great way to overcome this is with a Personal Trainer, but often times this can be a very expensive endeavor that may not even be worth the cost invested. Group Fitness Classes can be a great way to get encouraged and stay motivated for a fraction of what it would cost to hire a Personal Trainer.  Unfortunately, in many classes you get lost in the crowd, no one knows your name (or cares) and the instructor may not encourage you to modify exercises or make adjustments for your body type, current fitness level or possible pre-existing conditions or injuries.  

Try a Kickboxing class in Athens, GA!  It’s a great way to workout and have fun.  In a well designed kickboxing class you are taught proper technique and receive expert coaching.  In poorly constructed gyms and classes you receive instruction from someone who just simply has experience in fitness (sometimes very little) and has never stepped in the ring or even just been punched in the face.  Even with a quality kickboxing class there are some drawbacks.  It can be hard on the hips and sacrum, damaging to your feet or shins and can do a number on your joints.

This is where taking a high quality Boxing Class in Athens, GA may be a great fit for you!  You won’t get bulky and you won’t lose muscle, but you will become leaner, faster, stronger as well as increase your reflexes and confidence.  With high quality Boxing classes you’ll learn proper technique, receive expert coaching, you will never be lost in the crowd and always leave class feeling satisfied and filled with those awesome endorphins you only get from a fun and challenging workout that requires every ounce of your mind and body.

What makes this class even more fun and exciting, is there are always new combos to learn and new ways you can push yourself to reach higher and higher levels of fitness and technical ability.  In a high quality Boxing Facility, you train in the same gym as real competitive fighters. This can only help you raise your standards no matter what your health and fitness goals are.

Regardless of what form of fitness routine you choose, you need to start NOW!  If you want to experience a real Boxing workout that will push you in all the right ways, come try a class with Keppner Boxing.  And if you already have something else you’re into, commit to raising the bar for yourself now and become even better.  

We all have a natural tendency to wait around for the time to be just right; for everything to just fall into place.  The reality is you need to start something first in order for things to fall into place.  God, Mother Nature, The Universe, Life, or whatever you believe, seems to favor those that take specific and persist action towards what they want.  You will never create the health, fitness, body and lifestyle you want if you keep waiting around.  Start this hour, this day or this week to begin Unleashing Your Potential and experience all the awesome things you are truly capable of.

CREATING HEALTHY HABITS

Our daily habits define us.  If our habits don’t bring us to our greater goals we will come up short in achieving the life and the body we want.  In order to change and modify our habits we must understand how habits are formed.  A habit is nothing more than a conditioned response to a Trigger or stimulus that cues us to perform a certain Routine which in turn gives us some type of Reward.   

1. Trigger
2. Routine
3. Reward

If we didn’t get a reward from the habit it would be easy to stop it.  If we change our environment it can make change easy because we eliminate the cue or trigger that reminds us to do the bad habit.  Habits are an important part of our lives, but it’s important to identify what habits serve us and which habits are out dated and hold us back.   

What can we do to alter our habits and therefore change our health, fitness and life?  

First, change your triggers by setting up your environment to win.  If you find yourself eating too many sweets then eliminating those foods from sight can be enough to keep you from being triggered to eat them.  If you find it hard to workout when you get home from work set out your workout clothes on the counter to trigger you to think about it or at least consider it.  

Second, change your routine.  Changing your routine doesn’t have to be something massive or extreme.  Often times trying to do too much in the beginning of a new habit can prevent you from consistently executing it.  A great strategy is to create the positive habit just like negative ones are created.  Just how someone goes from a few drinks on the weekend to a drink every night and then a few more and then they turn around and they are an alcoholic.  You can use small steps to set you up to win!  If your goal is to get back into exercise or start being more active you can set a goal to just walk out your front door everyday or do 1 push up.  When you get down to do 1 push up consistently everyday you will eventually just say “heck, while I’m down here I’ll do a couple more.”  This is far more effective strategy than having a goal of doing 50 a day when you haven’t even done one pushup in the last month.  Make your new routine so easy that you can’t talk yourself out of it.  After a few weeks the routine will be set and then you can slowly and almost naturally build on the new healthy habit.  This method will create almost an avalanche of positive changes in your life that all started from that small almost insignificant shift.

Third, create a reward.  It’s can be so easy to get hooked in the rewards of bad habits.  Drinking too much, eating too much and everything else that is not an ideal habit are very easy to do and very easy to get a temporary reward with.  This is why they can be so addictive.   In order to make your new routine stick you need to reinforce it with some type of reward to keep you motivated.  The most powerful rewards are intrinsic not extrinsic.  Once you have completed your simple, but positive new habit celebrate with yourself.  Say to yourself, “This is the real me, this who I truly am, I got this, I can do it!”.  Even raise your hands in the air in victory to create that winning feeling because once you start a healthy habit no matter how small you are now really winning at life.  This may sound odd and weird, but speaking to yourself this way and physically putting yourself in the posture of success and achievement reinforces your positive behavior and creates a deep connection in your brain and body that your new habit equals happiness, joy and success!  

Now stop reading and start doing.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, take that first step today and create just one simple healthy habit, stick to it and see it grow into a garden and positive and fulfilling life long habits.   

“Excellence is not an act, but a habit”

-Aristotle

OUR SOCIETY NEEDS BOXING

We have clawed ourselves as a people to a pretty good life.  A place where we can over eat and hide away from our real problems.  With all the beautiful advancements in our world we are confronted everyday with how we can keep the good qualities of our species, remove or redirect some of the bad qualities and build ourselves to be the best version of ourselves.  I believe that Boxing can be a big part of that journey.

Turn Negative to Positive

Have you ever felt so frustrated or annoyed you wanted to punch someone?  Most people have.  It is a natural feeling that has stayed with us since our more primitive times as a species.  Now, in most areas of society that isn’t acceptable behavior anymore, but that doesn’t mean we should suppress that feeling.  Often, if you suppress feelings you can get away with it for a little while, but then eventually they boil over and you end up snapping at your Boss or your significant other.  A healthy way to release all the pent up emotions you may have is with a high quality Boxing Workout.

When you throw punches every day it makes you punched out for a little while.  I’ve worked with so many clients who after adopting an intense Boxing routine feel much less stress and tension in their day to day lives.  High stress in our society is a serious issue which can cause high blood pressure and a depressed immune system.  Exercise and especial Boxing exercise is one of the sure fire ways you can release any anger, have fun and get in the best shape of your life!

Chess Not Checkers

Boxing can appear to be a very primitive sport and while it is the oldest sport with very primitive undertones and emotions in it,  it is as complicated and technically involved as a chess match.  Many times a stronger and better conditioned boxer can lose to a superior strategist.  A great example of this is the Mayweather vs McGregor fight.  Mayweather TKO’d a man who was 11 years his junior, outweighed him by 20 pounds the day of the fight and who was training like an animal to be in condition for the bout.  All this didn’t matter because Mayweather had a winning strategy and the skill to execute it.  The power of the right strategy can mean the difference between success and defeat in the ring and in life.

Through training Boxing for sport or fitness you can learn the strategies of the game and become well versed in its tactics.  Once your mind starts thinking in terms of strategies in Boxing, you can use this mindset in very area of your life.  So much of success in Boxing is pattern recognition.  If you know what your opponent is going to do, because you know their patterns, you can beat them easily.  Same thing in your life, you can identify the patterns for success in an area, identify the challenges, better prepare for them and win.  Sometimes you need to adopt the strategy of a brawler in Boxing or in your life and just drive forward, non stop throwing bombs until your opponent falls.  Other times you need to sit back and counter and use your opponent's momentum against themselves.  The more strategic you can become in your life and in Boxing the better success you will have.

Get Tough

We live as good or better than the most pampered kings and queens did 300 years ago  and we have grown soft because of it.  Now many people die from not moving and  overeating.  We use to die hunting or fighting for a better life.  What we view now as pain is our phone not working or the power being shut off or someone cutting us off in traffic.  Most of us will never experience the day to day struggle that so many of our ancestors felt.  That pain and suffering was an important part of our develop to grow fortitude, grit and character as a species.  Through time we have lost that toughness to work through extreme pain and adversity to be what we are truly capable of.  So many of us have thrown in the towel in our life when we start to get out of our comfort zone and start to experience some of the necessary pain that is required for real progress.

The reason why we don’t push through hard situations to unleash our full potential is often times because we lack perspective. Boxing gives great perspective.  If you are worried about an interview or a speech and have sparred in Boxing, you know the pain of the Boxing session is far greater than anything you’re fearing could go wrong in your interview or presentation.   Boxing is a better sport to learn this toughness and perspective because losing doesn’t mean getting a bad score or being dropped from the team.  Losing means getting punched repeatedly, very hard or getting knockout!  When someone says metaphorically “they got me on the ropes”  or “I got knocked down, but I’ll get back up again” they are saying how they feel, but in boxing that is what really happened.  In Boxing you have to learn to fight through the pain and keep going.  In basketball you can say “we beat the heck out of them”, but when you say that in Boxing that is what actually, physically happened.  

In order to become tough you have to put yourself in tough situations.  Boxing is one area that you can carve the muscles of toughness in a healthy way.  A place where everyday you challenge yourself and your training partners to not only do more, but be more.

Humility Is Healthy

Many clients I have worked with from many different backgrounds say Boxing is the most humbling thing they have ever done.  Nothing will test you and challenge you like the sports that ESPN ranked “ The Hardest Sport in The World”.  When I started seriously taking up Boxing, like most young men I thought I was pretty good before ever stepping in the gym.  I thought, if it ever really came down to it I could beat up anyone.  What Boxing did was make me humble.  I quickly realized that even a person who weighs 40 lbs less that me can beat the crap out of me in one round.  It doesn’t matter how tough you talk, what you can bench or even if you’ve been in street fights.  Nothing will prepare you for experiencing the humiliation you feel after going just a couple rounds with a seasoned fighter.  What’s important to remember is that through this gained humility you get brought into reality and that is powerful.  There is power in clarity and if you never know what you are now you will never be able to make yourself better.  Then as you get better you gain confidence in yourself and that confidence makes you push yourself even harder in an endless cycle that brings you higher and higher levels.

The Final Bell

If you are interested in turning negative emotions into positive ones, being a strategist, being truly tough and resilient and having humility then a High Quality Boxing facility is the right place for you. Like all things in life it is hard before it get's easy. So don't give up on the first sign of defeat. If you did that as a child you would of never walked or rode a bicycle. As we get older we often get set it our ways and begin the downward slide to our demise, but it doesn't have to be like that. Be a continuous learner and you will stay young for many, many years.

4 SECRETS TO BETTER PUNCHING

Many people are under the misconception that if they can fling their arm at something they know how to throw a punch.  Often in fitness gyms I see a personal trainer holding pads for someone that honestly doesn’t follow any of these 4 criteria.  That is why I call these 4 Principles “Secrets ’’ because to those trainers and their clients they are.  Knowing these principles will not only ensure you hit harder and get a better workout, but also will ensure you don’t get injured.

1. KNUCKLES

This may at first seem like an obvious point, but throw my years of working with clients I can say it is something many people struggle with.  On straight punches it is important to make sure everything from the shoulder to the elbow is lined up when the punch connects with the target.  It is easy for some people to “paw”  their punch and hit with the fingers.  This results in a loss of power, a likelihood of wrist issues and you looking like a little kitten trying to paw at a string.  Obviously this is not the desired effect for the trainer or the client!  Hooks and uppercuts are especially challenging punches for some clients and fighters because depending on the length of the punch you have to do a slight wrist bend inward to ensure the knuckles connect and it’s not a slap.  One more thing just to hit the point home,  in the sport of Boxing it is illegal to hit with anything else except the knuckles.  So whether you train Boxing or actually fight, follow the rules and hit with your knuckles.  

2.  SQUEEZE

For some this is the ultimate reason why they develop wrist and hand issues…. They don’t squeeze at the end of their punch.  I tell my fighters and my clients that every time you hit it’s with hundreds of pounds of force.  I don’t care who you are, if you throw correctly, that is the force you can generate. Now imagine that amount of force on a lightly closed fist!  Another point I use to drive this home is if I were to ask you to plank on your first your body would naturally squeeze the fist tight because the body intuitively knows you’re putting a lot of weight on it.  If you went limp with the fist you would buckle the wrist, compress the hand and fall down.   I can feel this mistake as a coach when holding focus mitts for a client or fighter and I can see it on a bag, as well.  You can actually see the wrist wobble under the force of impact when someone isn’t squeezing.  Like I tell my clients and my fighters, “  If you don’t squeeze you will hurt yourself and you won’t hurt anybody”.

3.  STEP OR PIVOT

Many are often confused with what is a scoring punch in boxing.  In Pros it’s a cleanly landed punch that is effective.  In Amateurs it is a punch that hits a scoring part of the body, that has the weight of the body or the snap of the shoulder behind it.  As I coach it, you step on the jab and pivot on all your other punches.  This is not a solid rule, you can throw a punch that has some pop on it without a pivot or a step, but as a general rule for beginners and novice boxers it is of great importance.  The step with jab is important to not only produce power, but to bring you towards, away from or around your opponent. The coach for Heavyweight Champ Larry Holmes said the secret to Holmes’ jab, that literally knocked people down, was the step. Just like any sport that involves powerful twisting motions, the pivot is important to maximize power because it releases your hip to turn.  This turn allows for the heaviest parts of your body to rotate with a punch and therefore can massively increase your power.  If you want to hit with your full power you need that step and that pivot!  

 

4.  BREATH

This is what I call a two cent piece of advice that almost anyone could tell you, but if I had a dollar for every time someone threw a punch and held their breath I would have a few extra thousand dollars laying around.   People tend not to breath or exhale on their punches because they are too tight. This tension is caused by them trying too hard to push the punch instead of just throwing it.   The key to becoming faster and hitting harder is to be relax and breath.  The fastest Boxers in the history of the sport relaxed and breathed on their punches. Also, if you don’t breath you are going to get prematurely exhausted and hurt your ability to push your body to it’s true output capacity.  Make sure the breath with each punch itself is relaxed.  Often times Clients and Fighters will do a strenuous “shhh” sound that overly contracts the core and takes too much energy.  Focus on a light breath that is either just an exhale or a grunt.  This way you can ensure quality punches that don’t tire you out.

THE FINAL BELL

When you apply these 4 principles to your punches you will dramatically increase the quality of your boxing workout and or your performance in the ring.  Repetition is the mother of skill so practice, practice practice and unleash your potential!   

WHY YOUR BOXING WORKOUT SUCKS

This is an absolute must read if you want to get the most out of  Boxing as a workout or as a fighter.

YOU DON'T THINK TECHNIQUE

Progress equals happiness.  If you aren't getting better, even if just by a tiny bit, you're not getting the most out of your life and your Boxing workout.  The cause of this lack of progress is often times people don't think while they work.  I have seen it before with fighters and with fitness enthusiasts, they don't focus on their present work and therefore do not improve.  They zone out on a bag and just repeat bad form after bad form, cementing their bad technique deeper and deeper into their body to the point where if they actual tried to change it would be harder for them than a person who has never thrown a punch in their life.

 Part of the huge thrill of Boxing for fitness and for sport are the huge array of techniques and combination sequences that can be employed.  This is what makes Boxing such a fun workout because it can always be challenging and exciting.  So no matter what you do in your workout, give it a purpose and enjoy the process of progress.  Treat a bag like an opponent, visualize punches coming at you and respond accordingly or initiate your attacks in different ways to keep your imaginary opponent on their toes.  Control the bag with your punches don't let the bag control you.  Like I tell my fighters, "If you can't control that bag how can you expect to control an opponent?".  Think when you shadowbox, viewing yourself in the mirror watching for technical efficiencies and technical flaws.  Think when you do mitt work, think, think, think!  No matter if you are an aggressive fighter, a puncher, a brawler, a counter puncher, a mover... you still have to think if you want to be good.  If you want to train, get in great shape and want to look like a boxer when you throw punches you have to think when you train.

IT NEVER CHANGES

Boxing is a sport where you do either 2 minutes or 3 minutes of work with a 1 minute break in between rounds.  Even though the time limits are only these 2 options for a varying number of rounds in actual competition, world class boxers and even just decent boxers change their time intervals when they train.  Floyd Mayweather has been know to spar 5, 10 and even 20 minutes straight even though he never competes for more than 3 minutes a round.  If your boxing workout is always 3 minute rounds followed by a 1 minute rest you need to make some changes.  Yes, as a fighter starting out you need to get use to those intervals, but it is essential for long term conditioning and success to cut breaks down and increase times.  It is a physiological fact that when the body is presented with the same time intervals month after month gains in conditioning tend to slow down.  The perfect antidote is change!  Even doing short burst like 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off or a Tabata interval of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off will shock your system and make your body use it's full potential.  For a person just looking to get in shape or a person looking to become a Champion this type of change in a workout is required.

Now obviously, there are not only time intervals than can be changed to supercharge your workout. There are so many alterations or additions it's almost infinite.  You can change the weight of gloves you use, change the weight of dumbbells, change the reps or sets of your strength and conditioning work, wear a weight vest or ankle weights, add new exercise, the list goes on and on. This this type of change does two great things:

1. It forces your body to adapt and get stronger.
2.  Assists in preventing over use injuries and burn out.

If you want to unleash your full potential I strongly recommend taking all  of these options into consideration.

YOU NEVER GET BETTER

I have seen so many individuals repeat the same mistakes over and over again to the point where they can tell you themselves what they are doing wrong.  Like so many things in life knowing what's wrong and even what needs to be done is not enough, one must actual do something about it and follow through.  This change requires you the trainee to take charge.  That is the beautiful thing about Boxing, if you want to be better you are the one that has to do the work.   Many clients who are doing Boxing for a fitness workout unfortunately do not look like they have any idea what they are doing.  Often times they are being lead by someone who took a 2 day boxing course and began instructing based off of that alone.  It is the blind leading the blind and it ends up making clients feel self conscious about themselves because deep down they know they look and feel like they don't know what they are doing.  Instead of the the self empowering feeling you should get from being able to buckle a bag and move with grace and poise they are unconfident and disempowered.  Not only from bad instructing do clients get these negative feeling, but it also sets them up for injury.  One Personal Boxing Client I had years ago tried one session with as unqualified Boxing instructor and broke their hand in their very first workout!  I cannot stress enough how important it is to get proper instruction to not only get great results and feel good, but not get injured.

It would seam the answer to bad instructors or Coaches would be to simply get an instructor or Coach that has fought and competed and therefore has done more than a weekend workshop.  Sadly this is not a sure fire solution either.  Some of the best fighters I've known and met our not the best Coaches. It is a different set of skills to be able to become a Champion than it is to make someone a Champion. I have seen Coaches that are poor boxers, but amazing Coaches and Boxers that are phenomenal fighters and very poor Coaches.  You need someone who knows the art and the science and has the ability not only to teach you, but to condition you and inspire you.

THE FINAL BELL

Boxing is a very safe and rewarding workout when done right.  When done correctly it can produce amazing results for your body and your mind.  If you haven't yet tried a high quality Boxing Workout now would be the best time.  It doesn't matter how old or out of shape you are, there is much to be gained from something like this for someone like you.  If you've done Boxing before, but have fallen off because life got in the way, steer yourself back on course.  Remember a ship is off course 99% of the time, but what's important is that the crew on board constantly turns the wheel ever so slightly so the ship hits it's desired destination.